PM Netanyahu reacts to speech by Ayatollah Khamenei

If someone thought that the extraordinary concessions to Iran would lead to a change in its policy, they received an unequivocal answer over the weekend in Iranian ruler Khamenei’s aggressive and contrary speech.

Copyright: Reuters

On Saturday, July 18, four days after the signing of the agreement with the world powers, in a speech marking the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei delivered a speech broadcast live on Iranian state television. Khamenei vowed that the nuclear agreement with the major powers would not change Iran’s policy against the "arrogant American government" nor would it change the Islamic Republic’s policy of supporting its "friends" in the region: "The Islamic Republic of Iran will not give up support of its friends in the region – the oppressed people of Palestine, of Yemen, the Syrian and Iraqi governments, the oppressed people of Bahrain and sincere resistance fighters in Lebanon and Palestine. Our policy will not change with regards to the arrogant US government," said Khamenei.

His remarks were greeted by chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" at the ceremony marking the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan.

(Communicated by the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser)

Following is an excerpt from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting (Sunday, 19 July 2015):

"If someone thought that the extraordinary concessions to Iran would lead to a change in its policy, they received an unequivocal answer over the weekend in Iranian ruler Khamenei’s aggressive and contrary speech. The Iranians aren’t even trying to hide the fact that they will use the hundreds of billions that they will receive under this agreement in order to arm their terror machine and they are clearly saying that they will continue their struggle against the US and its allies, first among them being Israel, of course.

Today Iran is arming terrorist organizations with missiles – tomorrow they will have the ability to arm them and themselves with much deadlier weapons. The agreement that was signed paves Iran’s way to arm itself with nuclear weapons within a decade, if Iran decides to honor the agreement, and before then if it decides to violate it, as it is usually does.

The alternative to this failed agreement, which we proposed repeatedly, is the continuation and strengthening of the sanctions on Iran and conditioning the lifting of the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program, and the lifting of the pressure on Iran, only if it changes its policy. As long as the Iranian leadership is encouraging calls of ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’, there is no reason to make any concessions to them."